Exploring the Patterns of Venture Capital Syndication: Evidence from investment-round data

This paper explores the composition of venture capital syndicates and their impact on portfolio firms' performance. Using a unique dataset comprised of the investment history in each investment round for each portfolio firm, we measure the correlation among various characteristics of lead venture capital firms and member venture capital firms. We also study how the assortativity of such member characteristics affects the firms' IPO dynamics, market movements, and delisting from stock markets. The estimate results imply, first, that the assortativity of venture capital characteristics in the first investment round is not statistically confirmed. Second, the assortativity becomes significantly positive in later investment stages. Third, the venture capital syndicate exhibiting higher heterogeneity among member venture capitals tends to be correlated with early initial public offerings. These results show the economic benefit associated with heterogeneous members in the early rounds.